“Everything I ever needed to know, I learned
on the basketball court..."

PAGE THIRTY-NINE

In the bottom portion of this page, Sarah mentions the bold preseason prediction she made her senior year about a State championship for her high-school basketball team.

The seeds of intrepid confidence and boldness that were already in clear evidence in her heart and soul when she was a teen, shine forth even more today. In a sense, she is the same today as she has always been—only, she is even stronger today.

Witness her fearless, cool, factual prediction to Barbara Walters recently. Sure, she said in effect, I can beat obama in the next presidential election.

She won the State championship, playing in a glory of pain and agony on a stress-fractured ankle; she will drive obama and his anti-American minions right out of the White House in '12!!

PAGE FORTY

“Game by game, week by week, our scrappy but determined team surprised everyone by piling up victories,” Sarah says.

Sound familiar?—Look at the recently-concluded 2010 election season!! Per Parva Ad Maxima!!!--Through Small Things to the Greatest Things!!!

PAGE FORTY-ONE

“Everything I ever needed to know, I learned on the basketball court. And to this day, my right ankle is a knobby and misshapen thing, a daily reminder of pushing through pain,” says Sarah.

Ah, just think if she had taken the facile and easy way out that fateful night so long ago, and had sat on the “pine,” instead of venturing forth with her wounded joint into the cauldron of conflict and contest.

Her physical ankle might look pristine and nice to the eyes of the body, but her soul, her soul would likely not possess that pellucid and puissant presence that has moved, even to tears, so many Americans who have been privileged to meet her ever since Sarah Palin Day (29 August, 2008).

Truly, in the deepest sense, who or what was more beautiful than the Son of God at about 3:00 in the afternoon of Good Friday—but not oculis corporis, not to the “eyes of the body.”

Our precious Sarah, a born mom, “conceived” and “brought forth” beauty and courage on that crucial night; crucial for her; crucial for her teammates; ultimately, crucial for her country.

Ah, ankle all misshapen--In Heaven, dear sister Sarah, thou shalt see it made again pristine, and fresh, and new, by His power (“Ecce nova facio omnia” --“Behold, I make all things new”).

And thou shalt perceive the immense, incalculable good that has come about for thy country through this particular act of fortitude and guts and courage...and through ALL the gallant acts of your intrepid, and yes, noble, in a land that has no formal “nobility,” your truly NOBLE SOUL.

Because of your injured joint, your country shall walk again in the paths and ways of Liberty...with no limp!!!

I hope this shorter format works for you guys! (Three more pages done!!)

Read It For Yourself:

Other Great Sarah Books:

Palin Essentials:

Credits:

All sidebar photos are from Wikimedia. I have tried to post all royalty-free images or to get permission, but in a few cases I could not locate the original source of a photograph or find a way to ask permission.

Contact info: bbrianus@gmail.com.

Other Great Going Rogue Reviews:

"Palin’s inviting first-person narration that is sometimes whimsical, often confident, and always patriotic...Going Rogue is truly one of those reads in which you put the book down after your eyes graze the final lines and you somehow feel like the writer is someone you’ve known all your life."

"I was simply blown away by Going Rogue on almost every level. For many reasons, this is by far the best book and greatest literary achievement by a political figure in my lifetime..."

Brigadier General Anthony J. Tata:"Her book washes away all doubts that any reader might have had about her readiness to be president. She comes across as exceptionally bright, dedicated, and passionate about public service. Her moral compass is strong, pointing true North in this case. And she has a wicked sense of humor."

Don Surber:"Conservatives know why Palin is still standing — and standing taller today than those who tried to bring her down. What does not kill you makes you stronger. Thank you, Tina Fey."

Sarah Palin is Coming to Town

When I walked into the Strand Bookstore in Manhattan last week, I headed straight for the bright young thing who wore an “Ask Me” button, and asked her to point me to the section of the store where I might find Sarah Palin’s memoir, “Going Rogue: An American Life.” She looked at me as if I had requested a copy of “Mein Kampf” signed in blood by the author....A few days later...I had begun reading Palin’s book, and while I wouldn’t count myself a fan in the sense of being a supporter, I found it compelling and very well done....

First, the art. The book has an architectonic structure that is built around a single moment, the moment when Palin receives a call from John McCain inviting her to be the vice-presidential candidate of the Republican party. When we first hear about the call it is as much a surprise to us as it was (at least as reported) to her, because for six pages she has been recounting a wonderful family outing at the Alaska State Fair. When her phone rings, she hopes it might be a call from her son Track, a soldier soon to deploy to Iraq, but “it was Senator John McCain asking if I wanted to help him change history.”

And that’s the last we hear of it for 200 pages. In between we hear a lot about Wasilla, high school, basketball, college, marriage, children, Down syndrome, Alaska politics, the environment, a daughter’s pregnancy. The re-entry of John McCain into the narrative on page 208 introduces Palin’s account of the presidential campaign and its aftermath, especially her decision to resign the governorship before the end of her term....Paradoxically, the effect of the neatly spaced references to the call is to de-emphasize it as a dramatic moment. It is presented not as a climax, but as an interruption of matters more central to Palin’s abiding concerns — her family, Alaska’s prosperity, energy policy. (She loves to rehearse the kind of wonkish details we associate with Hillary Clinton, whom she admires.)

Indeed, it is a feature of this narrative that events we might have expected to be foregrounded are elided or passed over. Palin introduced herself to the nation with a powerful, electrifying speech accepting McCain’s invitation to join the ticket. It gets half a sentence (“I gave my speech”)....

The only event that receives an extended discussion is her resignation. It is important to her because as an act it reflects on her integrity, and she has to be sure (as she eventually was) that she was doing it for the right reasons.

Resigning was a moral act for which she was responsible. The vice-presidential candidacy just happened to her; her account of it reads like an extended “what-I-did-on-my summer-and fall-vacation” essay.

For many politicians, family life is sandwiched in between long hours in public service. Palin wants us to know that for her it is the reverse. Political success is an accident that says nothing about you. Success as a wife, mother and citizen says everything...

I find the voice undeniably authentic...It is the voice of small-town America, with its folk wisdom, regional pride, common sense, distrust of rhetoric (itself a rhetorical trope), love of country and instinctive (not doctrinal) piety.

It says, here are some of the great things that have happened to me, but they are not what makes my life great and American. (“An American life is an extraordinary life.”) It says, don’t you agree with me that family, freedom and the beauties of nature are what sustain us?

And it also says, vote for me next time. For it is the voice of a politician, of the little girl who thought she could fly, tried it, scraped her knees, dusted herself off and “kept walking.”

In the end, perseverance, the ability to absorb defeat without falling into defeatism, is the key to Palin’s character. It’s what makes her run in both senses of the word and it is no accident that the physical act of running is throughout the book the metaphor for joy and real life. Her handlers in the McCain campaign wouldn’t let her run (a mistake, I think, even at the level of photo-op), no doubt because they feared another opportunity to go “off script,” to “go rogue.”

But run she does (and falls, but so what?), and when it is all over and she has lost the vice presidency and resigned the governorship, she goes on a long run and rehearses in her mind the eventful year she has chronicled. And as she runs, she achieves equilibrium and hope: “We’ve been through amazing days, and really, there wasn’t one thing to complain about. I feel such freedom, such hope, such thankfulness for our country, a place where nothing is hopeless.”

The message is clear. America can’t be stopped. I can’t be stopped. I’ve stumbled and fallen, but I always get up and run again. Her political opponents, especially those who dismissed Ronald Reagan before he was elected, should take note. Wherever you are, you better watch out. Sarah Palin is coming to town.